Trumpet Embouchures

Trumpet Embouchures control the pitch and the quality of your sound.

Regardless of which one of the Trumpet Embouchures you use these things MUST always happen.

The lips must be moist. The surface tension of the water aids in setting up the vibrations.

The lips must be touching. (If the air has nothing to fight there is NO buzz.)

Use as Little pressure as possible. Pressure only separates the lips and stops the sound. Backing off the pressure will allow you to soar.

Everyone says Tighten up to play high. That is wrong. What they mean is this: Hold something between your finger and thumb. That squeeze is what they are talking about. Playing high involves slightly pushing your lips together as you ascend.

Farkas Trumpet Embouchure

75-80% of all players use this embouchure.
This embouchure is described FULLY in “The Art of Brass Playing” by Phillip Farkas.
He told people to blow as if they were trying to cool soup. That is how he set the embouchure.

Raphael Mendez said to say the letter “M”.

In this embouchure most players Point the CHIN down. It is the pointing of the chin that prevents you from stretching the lips too thinly or going into a smile.
The skin under your lower lip will be flat with no air pocket.
Your lips should not overlap, nor do they roll in or out.
The corners of the mouth are held firmly in place.

Now what they DIDN’T say.
To play with an extended range you must.

Use a Pivot
Use a Tongue Arch
Remember use compression for range. It is like one finger pushing against the thumb.
You also use a flexing of the muscles around the embouchure for support.

Maggio Trumpet Embouchure

The Maggio system was established because Louis Maggio had sustained an injury which prevented him from playing any other system.

This embouchure is elusive for some players. The pucker is so different from what they used before that they lose control and sound quality. Others do it very easily and play well.

In this system you cushion the lips by extending them or puckering slightly. There is a picture on the cover of the book that shows a monkey making a puckered kissy face. This is used as humor and is a very big exaggeration of what you do.

This slight puckering creates a cushion between the teeth and the mouthpiece.
It also lets the player play for an extended time in the upper register.

Players of this system use a tongue arch and many use Anchor Tonguing as their tongue arch (like me).

I DO advise people who cannot play other embouchures because of injury or serious dental malformations to TRY Maggio.

I like that it is easier for ME to be more resonant using a slight pucker.

Stevens Trumpet Embouchure

This requires a special mouth formation to be 100% successful.

To set this embouchure you:

Make sure that your teeth are 1/4 – 1/2 of an inch apart.
Make sure that your jaw is forward making a flat playing surface.
Make sure that your lips are touching and slightly push your lips together to make a cushion. You also set the faintest hint of an inward lip curl.
Then PLACE the mouthpiece ON your lips.
To ascend you will push the lips together.
The lips will have a natural tendency to slightly curl in. That’s OK.
Remember to use as little pressure as possible.
The more that you can back off the pressure the more you have in reserve for later
Use a PIVOT.
Anchor Tongue. Several places in his book Stevens said to not use tongue arch. He as well as many teachers saw tongue arch and anchor tonguing as different things. Anchor Tonguing works by making a focused air stream while tongue arch doesn’t do this.

Superchops Trumpet Embouchure

This was taught by Jerry Callet.

It seems (at least to me) to mix parts of both the Maggio and Stevens. It shares the same problems also. Plus, it is very difficult to learn to slide the lips up to the high register position and back to normal.

In this system the pivot is much more aggressive than on other embouchures.

The pivot is used to push the lips over the top teeth and force the air stream to follow it.
The lower lip curls in over the top of the bottom teeth (like a reed player).
The top lip slightly overlaps the lower lip.
The lip compression comes from the muscles under the chin bunching up to make a knot of muscle on the chin.
This system does NOT use a tongue arch. He says that it constricts the throat.
All tonguing is to be done thru your teeth. This part really disturbed me.

As you ascend you pivot draw your facial muscles in and slide the mouthpiece over the top of the upper teeth.
To me it seemed like an extreme embouchure shift.

There ARE some good professional players using this to their advantage.

Lip Buzzing Trumpet Embouchure

This is the embouchure Clarke and Mendez played. When they taught, they made students lip buzz a month before they gave them a mouthpiece. They then had to mouthpiece buzz a month before being given the trumpet. By then they could change pitches and had decent tone. I use this embouchure on many of my students because it is so easy to learn.

The fastest way to successfully go to a closed embouchure is:

Lip Buzz: (Like spitting seeds.)
Do this 10 minutes a day. Buzz scales, songs, arpeggios, etudes….
Set your new embouchure
Buzz a note and while holding the buzz sneak the horn & mouthpiece into playing position.
At first take ALL breaths through your nose (so you don’t disturb the embouchure). (Most open aperture players try to start closed and open up the chops as they breathe. They pin the lips in place while separated and can only make the lips touch by using mouthpiece pressure.)
And play songs and etudes.

(After the new setting is secure go back to normal breathing.)

Stay in the staff until you have strengthened the NEW embouchure.

Do a lip setting drill:
Buzz and sneak the horn into place to play 1 note. Remove the horn and start over. It takes thousands of good reps to break a bad habit.

Do those things for 1 month.

Then AFTER the new embouchure is set and the chops are stronger you can work on the Stevens palming exercise. I only do open arpeggios with this. Do it 10 minutes a day and after a month you should be able to play over High C with almost no pressure.

Then you must learn to relax the face and let the tone become full. Work on pulling the corners in to adjust tone color and assist range. Relearn your pivot and Anchor Tonguing. Work on more efficient breathing….

I hope that my little overview of Trumpet Embouchures helps.

Pops